Beluga by Rick Gavin

A few months ago in Ranchero, Rick Gavin’s much-acclaimed Delta noir novel, Nick Reid and his compadre Desmond liberated some money from a nasty meth dealer, and now they need to launder it. After lending out a couple thousand dollars here and there, with hopes of getting a small return, all kinds of “investment opportunities” are coming out of the woodwork, and one of them has trouble written all over it.

The brother of Desmond’s ex-wife wants a small sum to set up a scheme involving a trailer full of stolen tires. Which sets off all kinds of alarm bells for Nick, but Shawnica insists that Nick and Desmond help her brother out. In the next few days, they’re set upon by a ninja schoolgirl assassin and a couple of Delta gangsters, and soon all thoughts of recouping their investment go out the window. They’ll settle for just staying alive.

The twists and turns and the dry wit that made Ranchero a delight are all on full display once again in Beluga, Rick Gavin’s latest.

Unrated Critic Reviews for Beluga

Kirkus Reviews

As Nick, chained in a basement awaiting the ninja’s ministrations, sagely reflects, “It was hard at that point to imagine that this had all started because of some tires.”
Gavin updates the good-old-boy charm of the Smokey and the Bandit movie series but adds some sharp narration by a hero who’...

Publishers Weekly

In Gavinâs stellar second slapstick noir set in the Mississippi Delta (after 2011âs Ranchero), former cop Nick Reid and his humongous black buddy, Desmond, invest money in a lame-brained scheme to steal a truckload of tires, which turn out to be the hot property of Lucas Shambrough, a deviant...